Jess and Gred entered the alchemy shop one after the other, carrying the sacks of herbs. The moment the proprietor, Ruth Lumere, saw Jess, her eyes lit up.

"You didn't happen to dig up any Grave Moss, did you, Mr. Seso...? I remembered your surname correctly, didn't I?"

"You did, ma'am," Jess said. "Unfortunately, we didn't find any Grave Moss. We only have some Silverleaf and several other herbs. Would you like to weigh them? We're selling everything in the sacks."

"Please carry them over to the counter for me, handsome dwarf." Lumere smiled. Gred's eyes instantly lit up. Beaming with delight, he snatched up the sacks and carried them over by himself.

"However..." Lumere turned back to Jess. "I can smell something rather unpleasant on you. You must have searched quite a few graveyards. It's such a shame you found none. My supply has been cut off for so long that I plan to raise the price—and naturally, my purchasing price will rise with it. If you have any good news, tell me at once. Grave Moss is an important ingredient in medicines used to combat dark magic. As you know, many orc warlocks are still scattered through the forests and mountains. Soldiers continue to encounter them and suffer injuries, and they depend on Grave Moss for treatment."

"I've heard that some trolls 'cultivate' Grave Moss," Lumere whispered, glancing at the dwarf. "You understand that it's very difficult to grow with animal corpses, and the trolls certainly wouldn't use the bodies of their own people. You know what I mean, don't you?"

"I understand all too well." The dwarf nodded. "I come from the Hinterlands."

"A warrior of the Wildhammer clan," Ruth Lumere said. "Then you must feel this more keenly than most. Perhaps we'll have to use the same method someday. Frankly, if any politician or noble were willing to advise the king to make that decision, I'd be relieved. It would mean people still possessed some reason. The dignity of the dead is not as important as the lives of the living."

"Exactly right," Gred agreed. "If all the living die, who's left to respect the dead?"

The middle-aged proprietress and Gred seemed to hit it off immediately, but Jess had no interest in joining their chatter. He secretly sniffed himself and detected nothing. Why had both Malin and Ruth said he smelled like the dead?

And why didn't Gred?

Gred handed the proprietress the plant that resembled Earthroot. She examined it and asked, "Where did you gather this? It's Liferoot."

"What's Liferoot?" Gred asked.

"A fairly rare medicinal herb. It's difficult to gather within the kingdom," Lumere explained. "It can be used to brew an extremely potent antivenom, so demand is high. Strangely, goblins in Booty Bay are always buying it. I can't imagine why, but they've driven the price up as well. This specimen looks quite good. I'll pay twenty silver for it. What do you say?"

"Twenty silver coins?" Gred's shout startled Jess out of his thoughts.

Jess stared at the herb. "Liferoot is worth that much? Where is it more common?"

"In the north—from the Alterac Mountains to the Arathi region. It also grows in Khaz Modan," Lumere said.

"That really is too far away," Jess said helplessly.

"Then where did you get this one?" Lumere immediately asked.

They obviously could not admit they had robbed it from an elf.

"A herbalist's secret," Jess said mysteriously.

Lumere laughed. "You didn't camp beside some precious herb for days, knock out an innocent herbalist who came to gather it, and steal their bag, did you?!"

This herb buyer certainly knew the trade. Jess protested at once, "Do I look like someone capable of such a thing? I'm always the victim!"

Lumere pointed at the dwarf. "You don't. He does."

"What does this have to do with me?!" the dwarf roared. "Wasn't I a brave Wildhammer warrior just a moment ago?"

Now that Lumere had noticed there was something questionable about the source of their herbs, Jess no longer dared ask what the remaining potion bottles they had taken from the elf contained.

Instead, he simply placed the bottles on the counter. "We also have three potions we can't use, so we'd like to sell them."

"We generally don't buy finished potions here, Mr. Seso."

Despite her words, Lumere picked up each of the three bottles, removed its stopper, and sniffed it. "An Elixir of Agility, an Elixir of Frost Affinity, and—Light preserve us—you even have an Elixir of Detect Lesser Invisibility. Are you two herbalists or bounty hunters?"

Gred and Jess looked at each other. Gred immediately said, "None of your business, ma'am. If you want them, name a price."

"Maria! Maria!" Lumere called toward the back of the shop. "Is your Uncle Caudill still buying potions?"

"He is, Mama! He asked me about them the day before yesterday."

"Got it!"

Lumere shook the three bottles again. "They're skillfully made, with almost no impurities, and the bottles themselves are quite attractive. Fourteen silver for all three."

"Take them. We have no use for them anyway," Jess said.

They chatted for a while about where different herbs grew and what they were worth. Lumere had two apprentice herbalists from the shop help separate the weeds and other useless plants from the contents of the sacks. Including the Liferoot and three elixirs, she ultimately offered sixty-two silver, far more than either of them had expected.

The two of them suppressed their excitement until they left the alchemy shop, then hurriedly opened the coin pouch outside.

"Now this is a pouch full of silver," Gred said. "We ought to thank that elf. Without him, this pouch would be half empty."

"That's true. If we hadn't run into him, the whole journey would hardly have been worthwhile," Jess said.

"Don't forget your Grave Moss, Kingsblood, and Wicked Claws," Gred said. "We kept all of those. Together, they should be worth another dozen or twenty silver. Speaking of which, what do you plan to do with them?"

"That's a secret for now," Jess said. "I don't even know if it will work. If it fails, I'll have thoroughly embarrassed myself."

"As if I care that much," Gred said. "Now let's divide the money."

Jess counted out forty-four silver coins. "These are yours."

"You handed them over without even calculating?" Gred said. "That doesn't look like seventy percent to me. Take them out and let me count."

"I gave you half a silver extra, and you're still suspicious after coming out ahead?"

Gred's brows drew together. "What?!"

"Look," Jess said. "Sixty-two silver divided into ten shares is six-point-two per share. Six times seven is forty-two, and point two times seven is one-point-four. Put them together and you get forty-three-point-four..."

"Wait..." Gred interrupted him. "What is all that? I need to write it down."

Jess shoved the coin pouch into his hands and kept eighteen silver for himself. "Calculate it yourself when you have time. I'm not going anywhere. If you think I got it wrong, come to the Mage Quarter and cut me down!"